6-piece rock band, 3 Years Hollow, recently released their new single, "Breaking Sound" alongside a accompanying new video, which was directed by Alex Zarek.
"Breaking Sound" continues the band's string of tracks that hit on real life honesty and situations that everyone can relate to.
Recently, Rock Life got the chance to speak with 3 Years Hollow frontman, Jose Urquiza, who was in the studio in his producer/mixer capacity working with another band.
The vocalist talked about the new 3 Year Hollow track and the additional new music that the band has been working on.
Rock Life: How have things been going for you?
Jose Urquiza: Fantastic, yeah fantastic actually! Thankfully, I've been able to be in the studio so I cannot complain about anything.
Rock Life: So can fans expect to be on the lookout for more new music?
JU: Yeah, but right now I'm actually working on producing another band with Morgan Rose from Sevendust. We work with a lot of different bands, but right now this is a band from Rockford and we're just doing a day writing session.
Rock Life: Have you been happy with the reaction to your new single "Breaking Sound?"
JU: Yes, very much! I was super nervous to put out this song after so long. It's also the first song that we've put out kind of with a shift in some of the song writing team.
We had Justin Taylor and Alex Raser from the band Alborn on guitar and drums as well as on the writing team. They are both new to us and Alex Frew, our guitar player, is new as well, so it was really a new flavor with everybody. We had a new energy in the room and in the studio, which was cool.
This was the latest song that we had written as a band. We wrote a lot of songs during the pandemic over the last few years, but this one just happened to be the last one that we worked on so that's a really cool things as well. It's kind of like the current version of who we are.
Rock Life: What was the inspiration for the track?
JU: You know, we wrote this one together in the studio and we wrote all of the words together as a group. We were going back and forth talking about different things and I don't even know that I was the primary writer of the inspiration so for once I can't really touch on that!
Typically, I tend to have a ton of stories about what a song means to me, but I don't have a specific thought for this one; it was really a collaborative effort. The words just kind of came out.
Rock Life: The video for the track came out great as well. Is that something you think about as you're working on a song or do you look at that after the fact?
JU: You know, this one we definitely didn't think about. We had the director Alex there and we just let him have full reigns with this one. He chose the tone and we had a really cool venue that we wanted to use, The Rust Belt in East Moline. That all worked out great.
A lot of times when we're in the studio, we're for sure thinking about how we want the imagery to look and I can see in my head what the video would look like. I'll be thinking how cool this could be at this particular point of the song.
That stuff definitely happens to me a lot, but with this one we just stepped back and let the director have it. We weren't even thinking video when we wrote this song because we weren't even sure if we were going to release it. As I said, we've been writing throughout the pandemic, but this time we just decided to get it out there and see what happens.
Rock Life: And you've talked about just being grateful to even release music during this time. What has kept you guys rolling because a lot of bands have taken a step back or hung it up all together?
JU: Goodness! Man, it is so sad how many actually have had to make the life choice of having to go to a job to bring home income versus being on the road. I know that all of our guys at one point had to make a choice like that and I know that kills bands left and right.
For me, I always thought if I could configure my life in a way where it would all work together and I was able to make a living in a way that enabled me also to perform and write music, then that would be the golden ticket. For some reason, I was able to put myself in that position and I do feel very grateful that we can still do this.
We still have the ability to write music and, of course, it's my studio so It's convenient. I really try not to forget those things because we are very lucky and honestly, we don't put out enough for how much access we have to this. That is something I try to say a lot to the guys. The goal is to put out a new record in March.
Rock Life: Do you have a lot of track already together for it then?
JU: We've got many tracks. We probably have 22 demo songs and probably seven half-written that we know are going to be on the record. I think we are going to have 11 or 12 songs on this album.
Rock Life: And what do you want people to know about the direction that you're heading in?
JU: Oh, good question! [laughing] You know, I, and this is really going to sound cheesy, but I am really super lucky to be able to do this and I'm just a kid at heart when I get into the studio. I'm super in the moment of the creation and just bouncing back ideas.
It's awesome that all of us are all here together writing this album together so I guess it will be a true representation of who we are as a band right now.
I'm definitely going to search my soul to bring back some aggression from some of the earlier tracks. I've seen a lot of fans point that out and really miss that aggression from our older days and I feel that in me so I'd like to search and discover some of those places. I'm super excited to dive into the rest of the tracks!
Rock Life: Are you looking to play some shows or planning on still waiting awhile before you get back out there?
JU: We're not even thinking about it right now. So, I always hear from Morgan about how things are going and from some of my other friends about how rough it is to plan tours right now.
Some guys are still making it work, but then I'll see a post where the frontman is like we're sorry, but there's no way for us to logistically make this work. You can get out on the road and then two dates in one person tests positive and then everybody has to go home and everyone has lost money.
Right now we're just going to focus on creating as much new music as possible and that excited me because that's what I love to do.
Rock Life: Because you do have that access to the studio, were you finding that bands were still reaching out to you during the pandemic to work on music?
JU: Oh yes, I would say that is definitely one thing that increased for sure over that time. That's all we've been doing is basically writing and recording with bands. There are so many bands who are sitting on a ton of material. Me myself, I've actually co-written or produced maybe 80 songs in the last two years, but none for myself!
Rock Life: What is your favorite thing about doing this? It seems like you prefer the studio side of things.
JU: Yeah, I mean I love playing live, I definitely do, but there is a certain anxiety that comes with playing live to me. I have terrible stage fright and I had to really over come that, but I do love that and I do miss that, but my love for sure is being in the studio.
Creating these songs and the idea that a group of people can come into a room in the morning and eight hours later you can have this beautiful new thing that didn't even exist before.
Rock Life: And what is the plan for the rest of the year? Do you have an idea on the next single?
JU: You know, we're actually going to try to push this one until March and then once those tracks are out there, we'll choose the next one.
Rock Life: Finally, anything you want to say to the fans who have been waiting for new music?
JU: Well, of course, thank you very much for everything. Like I said, we have so much opportunity to do so much and it is a goal of mine to use the things that we have to create as much as we can and give the fans who have been supporting us for such a long time as much music to listen to as possible. That is our goal for this year and we appreciate them.
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